the dragon of sweet apple acres
by the gaming zombie writer
Summary: Even the slightest changes in the past can have a significant effect on future events, case in point: what if Spike was never raised by Twilight Sparkle? What if he was raised as a bonafide apple on Sweet Apple Acres, brother to Big Mac, Applebloom, and of course Applejack? What if his arrival as a hatchling had inadvertently prevented the deaths of Bright mac and Pear Butter?
1. Chapter 1

Bright Mac took in a deep breath of fresh air, the smell of apple trees and mud filling his nostrils; by Celestia he loved it, almost as much as he did his own kin.

It hadn't been easy for him or Pear Butter, her own family essentially disowning her but they had made it work and started a family all their own. About a year after they had gotten married they had birthed their first son, Big Macintosh, a colt with a red coat and a beautiful orange mane just like his mother. Pear Butter had nearly broken down crying when she first looked into his green eyes and Bright Mac couldn't have been happier at the prospect of being a father, he'd raise that pony right; make him grow up to be a good hardworking stallion like he was, maybe get some grandkids further down the line.

Then two years after the fact came sweet old Applejack, their second child, a filly this time. Blonde hair that seemed to glow like fireflies, an orange coat that reflected the morning sun almost perfectly, she was an angel; well almost. See while Big Macintosh was a fairly quiet foal, well behaved and kept himself out of mischief, Applejack was almost the exact opposite; that foal seemed to attract trouble like a bear to honey, knocking things off shelves, waking up the couple in the middle of the night with her wails, getting into the most darned of places (how did she get onto the roof of the barn?! She didn't even have wings!), and generally running him and Pear ragged. But she was so utterly adorable, so disarmingly cute that neither of them could ever stay mad at her for long, they could only hope that she would calm down as she got older, catching a foal falling out of an apple tree isn't good for a pony's heart.

But enough reminiscing for now, it was harvesting season and he had to get to work, apple trees weren't gonna buck themselves after all. Bright Mac hooked up the cart full of baskets around his midsection, tugging the wooden contraption out into the middle of the eastern grove; Granny Smith already had the western grove covered despite his protests, it was no secret that his dear old ma was getting on in the years now and couldn't buck trees like she used to, but that mare was as stubborn as a mule and refused to sit out this season, at least he didn't need to clear out the entire farm all by himself.

He was looking forward to next week though, they had gotten a big order for apples up in the middle of the southern deserts, something about using the seeds to start a new apple grove for a town they had planned to build up there, something along the lines of Applejuicia or Orangeloosa he didn't really remember. All he knew that it would have just been him and Pear Butter together, Granny Smith agreed to foalsit Big Macintosh and Applejack while they were gone for the week so they could finally get some alone time on the road for the first time in a few years, Celestia knows a stallion has needs after all.

Sure Pear was a bit nervous about traveling through the everfree forest, with all them timberwolves wandering around but Bright Mac insisted they'd be fine and it would all be worth it in the end. After all it was one of the biggest orders they'd ever had, with the money they'd finally be able to fix up the barn and get Applejack some toys. All they had to do was make it through the week without any shenanigans.

"Just one more week, just one more week and it'll be nothing but me, buttercup, two carts filled to the brim with apples, and the open road; ah can't wait" said Bright Mac with a dumb smile, his back hooves impacting with the apple tree behind him, the satisfying sound of apples plopping down into the various baskets placed below the trees.

Soon enough the eldest son of sweet apple acres got into his familiar old rhythm, galloping up to each apple tree and bucking them as hard as he could to knock the sweet fruits loose from the branches. One by one they fell and with each one he knew he was getting one step closer to spending time with his wife.

But suddenly something odd occured that made him stop mid-buck, the last tree he had hit had done something rather strange; he hadn't seen it of course as he had already trained his sights on his next target, but he had heard it. The familiar sound of apples plopping down into the baskets was broken by an audible thump following a second after, a thump that didn't sound anything like a falling apple.

Turning around to face the tree, Bright Mac's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull at the sight he beheld: sitting in a bushel of freshly bucked apples was an egg, not a bird egg that occasionally fell into the baskets when he bucked trees, no this egg was much larger than any bird he had heard off and it was covered with purple polka dots.

Gazing at the egg, Bright Mac mulled over what to do now. He couldn't just leave it, Pear Butter would never let him hear the end of it but he had no idea what would hatch from it either, it could have been some kind of demon for all he knew.

The farmer pony scooped the egg up into one of his hooves, he'd put it on top of the cart now for safe keeping and then finish up the apple bucking; once he was done he'd take the egg to Granny Smith, she was smart, she'd know what to make of this.

'So much for some peace and quiet' thought Bright Mac as he bucked another tree, completely failing to notice the small crack that had started to form on the top of the egg.

"So yer saying ya jus found this out in the apple groves?" said Granny Smith.

"Well more like it jus fell outta one of the apple trees granny." explained Bright Mac.

Granny Smith rubbed a hoof under her chin, she'd seen a lot during the time she'd been alive but for the first time in a while she was utterly stumped.

She had been making one of her famous apple fritters, the secret ingredient was vinegar, when Bright Mac had burst in holding a rather large egg, asking what in the world he should do with the thing. She had taken the egg out of his hoof and placed it on the dining room table where Big Mac was enjoying a small sippy cup of apple cider, homebrewed of course, in an attempt to try and make out what had laid the egg. But between her years of knowledge and three nature books, Granny simply couldn't figure out who or what this egg had come from nor could she figure out how it had ended up in Sweet Apple Acres of all places.

"Honestly, Mac. Ah'm just as confused as you are. Ah haven't got a clue where an egg like this could have come from." said the elder apple

"So what are we gonna do about this?" asked Bright Mac

"About what?"

Bright Mac looked over his shoulder to see pear butter standing in the doorway, a slightly confused expression adorning her face.

"Well buttercup, ah was out bucking the eastern grove like always when this here egg fell out of one of the trees. Ah took it to Granny so she could have a look at it."

Pear Butter gently nudged past her husband to get a better look at the egg in question and grew intrigued.

"Wait a darn minute here, this is a dragon egg!" said Pear Butter with slight excitement.

"What? How do ya know that?" asked Granny Smith

"When ah was still just a little filly, ah used to love reading about dragons. They were just such interesting critters, big, fire breathing, covered in scales, but of course ah never got the chance to see one and jus thought they were fairy tales." said Pear Butter "but this egg here, it looks exactly like the ones in my old picture books, no doubt about it this is a dragon egg."

Granny furrowed her brow. "Well then ah guess we gotta get rid of it."

"GRANNY!" shouted Bright Mac

"Ya'll heard Pear, that's a dragon egg; which means when it hatches were gonna have a fire breathing lizard on our hands, friendly or not it'll burn down all of Sweet Apple Acres if we let it. Better to nip this in the flank now."

"But it's still just an egg" protested Pear Butter "probably lost its own parents, we can't just abandon it like this!"

"Well what do ya'll wanna do? It's gonna hatch eventually and celestia knows we don't know nothing about taking care of no dragon! They can grow to the size of a silo ya know!" Granny said

"We can take it to somepony, maybe they can take care of it." replied Bright Mac

"Do ya know somepony who'd be willin ta take care of a dragon bright mac?" Granny sarcastically asked.

"We ain't gettin rid of it! Ah'll mah life ah've been wanting to see a dragon fer myself and here it is! We're keeping that egg!" shouted Pear Butter.

Soon enough the apple trio degenerated into an arguing match over what to do with the egg: Granny wanted to toss it, Bright Mac wanted to turn it over to somepony else, and Pear Butter wanted to keep it. They were so enraptured with their dispute that they completely failed to notice what was happening to the egg on the table.

Big Mac wasn't the average foal, he was actually a lot smarter than anypony would have assumed given his age. He didn't know a lot of words apart from Ma and Pa but he was fairly aware of his surroundings and knew the difference between right and wrong, something Applejack had yet to grasp. He had abandoned his cider when he saw his three parental figures start to fight over the weird rock that they had placed on the table, but when the rock began to shake and crack he put his full attention on it.

He looked up to Ma and Pa, waiting for them to do something as the rock began to shake more violently but they were still too busy debating whether or not to summon the princess, whoever that was, over this matter. Soon enough the rock was nearly bouncing up and down on the table, and Big Mac was starting to get scared.

"Ma?" he gingerly asked in an attempt to get their attention, to no avail.

The rock began to crack further, creating a spider web like pattern on its surface

"Pa?" he called out, this time with more force, still nothing

The rock was really shaking now, rocking from side to side like his favorite tire swing

"MA? PA?" his voice had began to elevate to shouting, but it wasn't enough to match the noise of his parents bickering

Now pieces of the rock had begun to fall off, revealing something soft and squishy beneath the surface.

Big Mac decided he had seen enough already, sucking in a large breath he screamed at the top of his lungs " **MA! PA!"**

The three grown up ponies finally looked in the direction of their son with a resounding "what?!"

Big Mac merely pointed at the shaking rock in response.

Pear gasped "it's hatching, by Celestia IT'S ALREADY HATCHING!"

"AH GOTTA SAVE THE CIDER!" shouted Granny Smith, running off into the cellar.

Bright Mac quickly jumped in between Pear Butter and the egg, making sure he would shield her from whatever came out of it.

To both of their surprise, when the egg finally broke away it was rather anticlimactic; instead of a bang like they had been expecting, the egg merely fell into pieces like a wet paper bag, leaving behind a chubby little dragon who let out a joyous squeal before sticking his tail in his mouth and sucking on the tip like a pacifier.

Bright Mac waited for the inevitable fire that would have come, any second now that dragon would start tearing up the place. Only it never came, all it did was sit there in the fragments of it's own egg, calmly sucking on it's tail.

Seeing that the dragon wasn't going to do anything, Pear Butter gingerly stepped around Bright Mac and approached the newly hatched lizard.

"Hey there little fella." said Pear in a hushed tone

The baby dragon looked up at the pony who had strolled up to him and giggled at her, playfully batting at some of the loose strands of her mane that were in reaching distance. His big pupils staring up at her with complete innocence.

With that Pear Butter melted inside, this dragon was utterly harmless, he wasn't any more dangerous than Applejack was.

"Well aren't you just the most adorable little thing." said Pear, her voice sweet and kind as she gently lifted the baby dragon up into her hooves.

Unfortunately that action seemed to have disturbed the baby dragon more than she had intended as he started to wail out, tears coming out of his eyes, his body squirming around in her grip.

"Aw don't cry! Shhh shhh shhh, it's okay. Mama Pear's here for ya." said Pear Butter, rocking the dragon back and forth in her arms like she does with Applejack.

The motion almost immediately began to soothe the baby dragon, his crying ceasing and his eyelids drooping until he fell asleep in Pear's arms, gently teething on one of her hooves.

"Well now what?" said Bright Mac, whispering as to not awaken the baby dragon.

Pear looked down at the baby dragon in her arms, the fragility of the creature laying there awaking her mother hen feelings that she felt with Big Mac and Applejack.

"We have ta take care of him." said Pear Butter.

"Beg yer pardon?"

"Look at him Mac! He's completely defenseless, wouldn't last an hour out there on his own, couldn't hurt a fly. We can't abandon him!" said Pear Butter.

"But Granny Smith said-"

"Oh forget what Granny said, look at this little guy!" Pear said, forcing the baby dragon into Bright Mac's hooves.

The motion made the baby dragon stir slightly and his eyes cracked open to look at the stallion currently holding him, letting out the cutest possible yawn possible in the process. Which dried up any sort of reservations Bright Mac may have had about keeping the baby dragon; Pear was right, this dragon was completely harmless.

"Well howdy there." said Bright Mac, speaking to the dragon in a baby voice "welcome ta Sweet Apple Acres young un'."

The dragon responded by reaching up to Bright Mac's nose with one claw and giving it a firm honk, much to Pear Butter's amusement.

"Well at least he's got a good sense of humor." said Bright Mac with a chuckle, handing the baby dragon back over to Pear Butter.

"Well if we're gonna be his parents, he needs a name." said Pear Butter.

Bright Mac leaned over Pear Butter's shoulder and began to run a hoof down the baby dragon's head fins, eliciting a giggle in response.

"What about Spike? On account of the spikes on his head." asked Bright Mac.

"Hmm, ah don't know. What do you think?" Pear Butter said, holding up the baby dragon "do you like the name Spike?"

Spike giggled again, letting out a small raspberry at the two ponies.

"Heh, guess that's a yes then." said Pear Butter.

"Spike it is. Ah'd better get to work on a new crib, our family just grew a little bit bigger today." said Bright Mac with a smile, only to look down when he felt something gently tapping his hoof.

"Pa?" asked Big Mac

"Hey there Macintosh, meet yer new brother Spike." Bright Mac lowered spike down so that he was eye level with the colt.

The two stared at each other for a moment, never breaking eye contact as they gazed into each others souls. After a few minutes of this stand off, the two gave an approving nod of each other before Big Mac walked off.

"Ah think they like each other other" said Pear Butter.

"Ah guess they do, that was a mite strange though." replied Bright Mac.

Pear Butter nodded in agreement.

Night had fallen on the ponyville farm rather quickly, the mare in the moon gazing over the landscape.

It took some convincing on Bright Mac's part to make sure that Granny didn't toss Spike out on the curve, luckily the baby dragon did all the talking for him with a few funny faces; Bright Mac was starting to think that Spike may have been too cute for his own good, definitely could give Applejack a run for her bits that's for sure.

He had cobbled together a simple wooden crib in near record time, adding a nice sheen of green and purple paint to it to match Spike's scales and placed it across from Applejack's crib.

The foal in question suddenly popped up from her nap to see what was developing across the room.

She saw her father drag in a new crib similar to her own into the room, only this one was painted green and purple. From where she was sitting, Applejack could tell he was placing something into the crib but she couldn't see past her father's rather large flank. She stood up on the tips of her hind hooves in an attempt to try and spot what her dad was hiding from her.

Turns out the effort wasn't needed as her father quickly left the room, revealing a weird looking pony in it's place. One with scales and weird nubs on the ends of his hooves, his wandering eyes slitted instead of rounded like her parents'.

Eventually the weird pony's gaze fell onto Applejack, who in turn stared right back at the pony in confusion. Much like Big Mac did earlier she gave a welcoming, but mischievous smile to the pony across from her and the pony returned the favor only much more innocently.

From what little Applejack could gather, her parents had brought her a brand new playmate and she was going to have lots of fun with him one way or another.

That day Bright Mac had found a dragon egg in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres and after talking with the rest of his family decided to adopt the creature into their own family. Because they had two infants to look after they were unable to go on the delivery to appleloosa the following week and Granny was forced to make the delivery herself with one of her sisters. Said sister was much more knowledgeable of the various paths through the Everfree Forest and managed to avoid crossing paths with any timberwolves at all. Because they had stayed home, Bright Mac and Pear Butter had never gotten lost in the everfree forest and they had never gotten mauled by a pack of timberwolves in the most tragic of fashions. Which meant they'd be there for their children as they grew up, Spike included. Which also meant that there would be the first dragon to ever join the apple family, a novelty that attracted quite a lot of business to the farm meaning they never had to fall on any sort of financial hardship whatsoever.

All it takes is one day to completely alter the course of history, one event to start the domino effect of events that would soon follow this, one little thing to create a whole new story.

The story of the dragon of Sweet Apple Acres.


	2. Apple Family Reunion

Bright Mac should have known that adopting a dragon would have come with a completely new set of problems, ones that didn't come with a foal.

For starters was his fire breath; every time Spike belched he let out a small green flame, Granny Smith learned that the hard way when she burped Spike on one occasion and had a singed tail to show for it. Not to mention when Spike did it for fun, nearly burnt down the house after he lit up his bedroom curtains. Thankfully they had enough bits to replace it and a bit of scolding had seemed to have discouraged the infant from trying a similar stunt.

The next problem was feeding him. The baby dragon loved apples, thank Celestia, but he ate nearly as much as Applejack did and that filly had the appetite of a full grown stallion. Not to mention that being a dragon meant he had a taste for gemstones, it wasn't expensive to get gems since Sweet Apple Acres was built next to a mountain stocked full of them, but trekking up and down the rock formation to mine for some emeralds took Bright Mac quite a long time. But Granny didn't raise no quitter, Spike was family now and Celestia knows old Mac would move mountains for em'.

Apart from that, Spike was just like a normal foal and he was much better behaved than Applejack to boot….as long as somepony was watching him that is.

The thing about Spike was that while he wasn't mischievous, he was VERY adventurous and loved to explore. Normally that wasn't a bad thing in a foal, but Spike was a hatchling which meant he had claws, claws that were made for climbing rock so getting traction on wood wasn't very difficult for the dragon.

He moved incredibly quick too, sometimes without so much as a sound. Just a few weeks ago, Pear Butter had just placed a jar of sapphires on top of one of the cabinets after giving Spike one as a treat, she had turned her back for a few seconds to check on an apple pie in the oven and when she looked back, Spike had somehow gotten to the top of the cabinet with one of his chubby little hands reaching into the jar to pull out another gem, Pear didn't even hear the little guy move!

It had been incredibly difficult at first, learning all of Spike's likes and dislikes, his habits and mannerisms, as well as basic care for a dragon; It felt like when Big Mcintosh was first born all over again. But they had finally found their rhythm, Bright Mac and Pear Butter both, Spike couldn't throw anything else at them that they didn't know how to handle; they knew when they could and couldn't let him out of their sight, they had fireproofed the whole house, they had started mixing gems into his apple treats. Everything had begun to return to some semblance of order on the farm.

Only for the entire thing to fall apart because of one little letter.

* * *

Pear Butter had just finished mashing up a few bushels of apples to be made into applesauce while Granny Smith got the pulp into the jars, leaving Pear with a few spare moments out of the day to relax. Pear decided she might as well check the mail to see if anything of interest had come through, hopefully at least a peep from Grand Pear; Pear Butter still missed her father quite a lot.

"Hmm let's see here: bill from town hall, a subscription to Bobby Blabby's newspaper, a postcard to Granny Smith from Apple Rose, and a letter from Goldie Delicious" said Pear Butter, slamming the mailbox behind her.

She opened the letter from Goldie first, she was a bit on the nutty side with all those cats she's been getting recently but that mare was sweeter than a fresh baked apple cinnamon crisp so it was always nice to get a letter from her. But as Pear read through the messy handwriting, her expression went from joy to concern.

Quickly making her way back to the house, Pear Butter found her husband watching over Applejack and Spike who were playing with some wooden blocks while Big Mac was napping on his father's chest like a kitten. Seeing Pear motioning for him to step out of the room to talk, he gently slid Big Mac off onto the couch to avoid disturbing his slumber and joined Pear in the next room over.

"Buttercup is somethin wrong?" asked Bright Mac

Pear Butter could only hold up the letter in response.

 _Dear Bright Mac, Pear Butter, and Granny Smith_

 _I surely hope this letter finds ya'll well_

 _As you know it's time for the tri-annual apple family reunion and once again everypony decided that Sweet Apple Acres would be the best place to hold it. I've already sent out all the invites and we'll all be there round next week, so you'd best get ready now; it'll be our biggest reunion yet!_

 _-with love, Goldie Delicious_

 _P.S. I heard ya'll got a new family member, can't wait to see the new foal!_

Bright Mac looked up from the letter with an expression of confusion.

"What's so bad about that? Ya know that the apple family reunion happens every three years, your family always went out of town 'cause of it." said Bright Mac

"It's not our family ah'm worried about, it's Spike." replied Pear Butter, looking over towards the baby dragon knocking over Applejack's block tower, causing the foal to angrily babble at him.

"Nopony knows that he's a dragon and ah'm scared that after one look at those scales, somepony might overreact."

"Hey don't you fret none." said Bright Mac "Spike's an Apple and we Apples stick together. We jus gotta introduce him to the family ourselves, all gentle like so we don't startle anypony. They'll come round, jus you watch."

"Yeah, yer right Mac. Everything will be jus- OH DEAR CELESTIA HE'S ON THE CEILING FAN!" Pear Butter shouted.

Whipping his head around Bright Mac saw that Spike was now clinging onto the running ceiling fan, laughing in delight as if it was a carnival ride; of course by Murphy's law, the rotation of the fan had become too fast and the baby dragon's claws came loose sending him flying.

Luckily Pear Butter was quick enough to snatch up a throw pillow and use it as a catcher's mitt to snag her scaled bundle of joy out of the air, bringing him back to the ground safe and sound all while Spike was just clapping his hands together in amusement, making Pear let out a breath of relief before turning to glare at Bright Mac.

"Alright, ah see yer point. This ain't gonna be easy for anypony." said Bright Mac.

Right then several books fell of the bookshelf on the opposing wall, Applejack popping out of the pile with a smile. Apparently the foal had tried to climb the shelves so she could get at the ceiling fan too, but the lack of claws made that for more difficult for her than it was for Spike.

"Ah wanna fwy too! Jus wike Spike!" exclaimed Applejack.

Bright Mac could only groan "well this is gonna be a FUN reunion, that's fer sure."

* * *

Surprisingly the preparations had gone off without a hitch: the cider had been made, the treats baked, all the activities planned. Everything was all set for the army of family members that would soon descend on Sweet Apple Acres.

Of course there was still the matter of Spike, it wasn't a big secret that dragons weren't thought of very highly in equestria; there were more stories about dragons being the villains in books than there were floors on the Crystaller building in Manehatten, even though Spike was a baby the apples were still worried that he might get more than a few stink eyes at the reunion. Sure Granny Smith had agreed to put in a good word for him, say what you will about that mare but her words held a lot of weight in the family; but neither Bright Mac or Pear Butter was sure if even that would be enough.

"No stop thinking like that Pear" Pear Butter said to herself as she paced back and forth in Spike and Applejack's room. "Like it or not, Spike is our son now and if the rest of the family don't like it then that's too bad for them. Oh but what if I lose another family? I already lost the Pears, I can't lose the Apples too."

Pear had been tossing and turning throughout the night, continuously worrying about the apple family reunion tomorrow and if they would accept Spike as one of their own. Around midnight is when she rolled out of bed and walked down the hall to her two children, looking at both of them sleeping soundly in their beds unlike her; but paying extra attention to Spike.

Soon enough she had started mumbling to herself over her fears and began to circle the room; an action which aroused the baby dragon from his slumber, who noticed his mother next to him and got up against the edge of his crib, standing on the tips of his toes to get a better look. Spike's expression turned into one of concern when he saw Pear Butter in distress.

Spike didn't know why she was so worried, ever since she had brought in that paper last week she had been looking at him like she was sad every time she saw him which made spike sad; he didn't want to make mommy sad. Spike tried to think about how she could make her feel better but being a baby meant he didn't have a lot to work with

Then he remembered that word daddy always said to mommy, he didn't know why but it always put a smile on her face no matter what; so Spike decided to try it himself, to make mommy happy again.

"Bfflllt, bullt, buh, buh." the baby dragon began to babble out, spittle dripping down his chin as he tried to mimic the word in question.

Pear looked over to Spike's crib and lifted the infant up into her arms. "What? What is it? Are ya hungry?"

"Buh, bud, buddercup." Spike said, finally nailing the pronunciation...more or less

Pear Butter blinked it suprise "what did you just say sugar?"

"Buddercup! Buddercup! Buddercup!" Spike repeated, as if saying it again and again would make his mommy happy quicker.

"Yer first word!" Pear shouted with glee "did you learn that from Bright Mac? Ah bet you did, mah little apple slice."

Spike smiled back at his mother, whatever he had said had worked, his mommy was happy again; mission accomplished.

Once the initial surprise of being able to see Spike say his first word firsthand, Pear Butter calmly grinned at her dragon son; all the worry simply melting away from her.

"Ya know what? Ah'm probably getting all worked up over nothing, the rest of the family is gonna adore ya Spike, ah know it." said Pear Butter, setting Spike back down into his crib where he immediately fell asleep.

The mare proceeded to walk out of the room and get back into bed with Bright Mac, hugging onto his snoring form like a body pillow; her eyes snapping shut soon after as she drifted off into the dream realm.

* * *

The next morning the whole family had gotten up bright and early for the apple family reunion, making some last minute preparations to ensure everything went smoothly.

Applejack and Spike were still resting upstairs, Bright Mac and Pear Butter would introduce them later in the day, but Big Mac was right next to them, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He had made a lot of progress in his vocab recently and could manage a few simple sentences now, but the colt was quickly becoming somewhat of a chatterbox.

"Are Auntie and Uncle Orange nice? Is Goldie Delicious gonna bring her cats again? When is Spike gonna be out here?" When-" Big Mac just kept on firing out question after question after question.

"Ah think ah liked it better when he only said 'eeeyup' and 'nnope'" whispered Bright Mac in a joking tone

"That colt does tends ta speak more than he listens." Replied Pear Butter only for Granny Smith to hush all three of them.

"Quiet, ya'll hear that?" The elder Apple said

At first there was nothing but the sound of the trees gently rusling in the wind, then came the rumbling.

There were dozens of them stampeding down from the hills, apples that had come from far and wide, all so that the whole family could be together for one day of fun on the farm, a day where they could catch up with one another and strengthen the apple family bonds. But most importantly was the biggest news of the apple family as of recent: Pear Butter and Bright Mac had not one, but two new foals and everypony was eager to meet both of them.

Within moments a sizeable crowd had formed in front of the barn, a cacophony of excited chatter filling the air, ponies hugging each other everywhere you looked, the younger ones playfully giving out noogies; it was just one massive pile of family adoration.

Once everypony had settled in, Granny Smith hopped onto the podium they had cobbled together for the occasion "HOWDY YA'LL AND WELCOME TO THE APPLE FAMILY REUNION" The elderly pony boomed as the crowd cheered. Despite being a bit on the frail side, that pony could shout loud enough to be heard for miles around.

"We got a full day planned for everypony with the seven-legged race and-" Pear Butter's attention was quickly dragged away from her mother in law when she felt a light tugging on her shoulder, looking over she saw her sister Aunt Orange (a rather confusing name when you got down to it) motioning for her to join her away from the crowd.

Once they were a decent distance away, Aunt Orange wrapped her sister in a big hug.

"It is an absoulute delight to see you again dear sister." said Aunt Orange

"Back at ya sis." replied Pear Butter, returning the hug

As the two pulled away from the embrace, Aunt Orange's expression grew somber. "I heard about what happened between you and father….I'm so sorry Pear."

"It's fine, ah've got Bright Mac, Granny Smith, and three beautiful foals to be mah new family. That and all the other Apples too, ah'll be alright sis." Pear said, just a hint of sadness weaved between her words.

"If you say so Pear. Speaking of foals, where are those two adorable little sweethearts of yours that everypony has told me so much about?"

Pear awkwardly scratched the back of her head "well ah was gonna wait until a bit later to introduce em' to everypony, but what the hay it won't do no harm for their aunt to get a good look at em. Jus promise me ya won't overreact."

"Darling why in the world would I ever overreact to a pair of cute foals?"

"Eeehhh, you'll see when we get there" replied Pear Butter, leading her sister into the house, upstairs into the babies' room.

"Alright here we are, sis I'd like you to meet Spike and Applejack!" exclaimed Pear Butter, pushing the door open.

Aunt Orange strolled over to one of the cribs and gazed inside, expecting to see a foal, only to frown and turn back towards Pear Butter.

"Pear, the crib is empty."

"What?!" pear shouted, shoving her sister aside to see that the foal crib was indeed short one adorable orange filly with a blond mane.

Pear threw herself over to the crib on the opposite side of the room and to her horror, the green and purple dragon that should have been occupying it was absent as well.

Now in full panicked mother hen mode, Pear began to search the room for her missing babies, spotting an open window with several pillows piled below it as a makeshift ramp, a few strands of blonde hair and flecks of shed scales lightly dusted the fluffy surfaces making it fairly obvious what had happened.

"Oh horseapples not again!" said Pear Butter

"Again? You mean this has happened before?!"

"Ah tell ya Orange, those two get into more trouble than any other foal ah know. Come on, we gotta find em!" said Pear, rushing out of the room with her sister in tow.

* * *

"See young uns'? There's nothin to it" said Bright Mac, finishing his hooves-on explanation of how to make the perfect apple jam to some bright-eyed fillies and colts of the apple clan, who clapped in appreciation.

"Now all we gotta do is git it into the-"

"BRIGHT MAC!" Pear Butter shouted, cutting off her husband as she galloped over. "THEY'RE GONE!"

"What? Who's gone?" asked Bright Mac

"Applejack and Spike! They got loose from their cribs and crawled outside!"

"Oh bucking- ah'll get the net, you get some other ponies ta help ya look for em, they couldn't have gotten far." said Bright Mac, galloping off towards the barn.

Naturally Pear Butter's outburst didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the family who started to gather around her.

"Wait, yer foals have gone missin?" said Apple Strudle

"Yeah, ah gotta watch those two like a hawk, otherwise they'll get into the strangest of places"

"Well what are we watin for? Let's hunt em down!" said Red Gala, the rest of the ponies nearby cheering in agreement.

The crowd quickly fanned out over the surrounding area, searching high and low for a pair of foals running around, leaving no stone unturned and no hay bushel overlooked. Everypony calling out for them in hopes of finding them as quickly as possible.

* * *

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the festivities, there were several Apples hard at work cooking up some piping hot fritters. Apple Split in particular was being especially diligent in his contribution; however either he was seeing things or there were fewer fritters than before each time he took another plate over.

After scooping up another pile of fritters onto a plate, Apple Split carried it over to the snack table only to find that he was in fact not going crazy and the fritters were disappearing as a whole plate was now gone.

"Hey, where did all them apple fritters go?" said Apple Split.

The sound of munching and crunching coming from underneath the table caused Apple Split's ears to perk up and he took a peek in the location of the sound; he immediately came face to face with one of the most adorable foals he had ever seen, chewing on a freshly baked fritter and smearing it all over her face.

"And, who are you little one?" asked Apple Split.

"I'm Applejack! More apple fwitter?" the baby replied.

"Awww, aint't you just precious?" said Apple Split, gently scooping Applejack up into his arms.

"Hey splits have you see a- oh you found one of em!" said Red Delicious.

"Hmm?"

"Pear Butter's foals got loose but by the looks of things you just found one of em'. Where was she anyhow?"

"Oh her?" said Apple Split, bouncing Applejack in his arms for emphasis "well this little one was keeping herself busy snagging a few fritters away when ah had my back turned."

"Well that's one down, ah wonder where the other one is?"

* * *

Near where several vats of apple jam were being cooked to perfection, a small dragon hatchling was perched on a large branch jutting out from one of the apple trees.

Recently he had gotten a strange fascination with the red orbs growing on the trees that he always saw from his bedroom window, his father called them apples and always cooked them into his meals but he never had gotten to hold one for himself until now.

Applejack was right, this was a good idea. Earlier the pair had woken up to the sound of pony cheers and while upset at first, it was quickly snuffed out by the smells that had begun to wafte in through their window, this made Applejack come up with a plan to get outside to the tasty treats by having Spike climb out of his crib before freeing Applejack, then they piled up all their toys in one corner of the room to make a ramp outside. They split up when they reached the ground, Applejack going after something she called 'fwitters' while Spike was more interested in getting at those apples on the trees.

Which brings us back to the here and now, Spike slowly inching forward on the branch towards his prize, every shimmy brought him one step closer; right as the fruit was in arms reach he paused at the sound of an unfamiliar cracking, then all of a sudden the branch gave way under his weight and he was sent plummeting to the ground.

Thankfully he had been right above the vats of apple jam when he fell, so instead of becoming a dragon pancake, Spike ended up splashing down into a cauldron of apple jam that Auntie Appleseed was currently tending to which made the mare cry out in surprise and her dentures fell right into the vat as a result.

"Oh phooey not again!" Exclaimed Appleseed, sifting through the vat for the lost chompers.

She was only able to search for a mere moment before she was knocked off her hooves by a large object bursting out of the mixture.

Looking up from her spot on the ground, she grew surprised to see that there was a small little baby dragon clinging to the edge of the pot, his head jutting out of the boiling jam, looking at the elderly mare with a smile whose innocence could only be found on an infant.

"Well I've nevah seen a critter like you before and I must say you gave me such a fright." Said Aunt Appleseed. "How in the world did you get in there?"

"There you are!" Said Bright Mac, trotting over and lifting Spike out of the pot, Apple jam dripping off the baby dragon. "Don't you ever run off like that again, ya here?"

"Wait you know this little one Mac?" Asked Appleseed

"Well Auntie, the thing is….oh buck it all to Tartarus, ah'm jus gonna say it: meet the newest addition to our family, Spike." Said Bright Mac

"You meet to tell me that is dragon is one of your new foals?"

"Ah found him just a bit after Applejack was born, he hatched right in front of me an' Pear, we decided to keep the little guy" explained Bright Mac as he started wiping the jam off of his dragon son with an old rag "ah mean look at him, would you have abandoned him?"

Spike gazed back over at auntie Appleseed and gave her one of his adorable looks that could melt the heart of a wendigo.

"Awww, you're right. He's simply precious! Coochie Coochie coo." Said Auntie Appleseed as she tickled Spike's belly.

Bright Mac immediately grew frightened when he saw what his aunt was doing. "Wait! Don't tickle him t-"

" **URRRRP!** "

Appleseed's ministrations caused Spike to let out a loud burp of fire right into Appleseed's face, singeing her hair but otherwise leaving the mare unharmed; if rather stunned by what had just occurred.

"Sorry about that." Said Bright Mac sheepishly "but he is a dragon after all, he can't help it."

Spike looked similarly ashamed and held up Auntie Appleseed's dentures as a peace offering of sorts, to which Appleseed took the fake teeth out of the dragons hands and shoved them back into her mouth to give him a weak smile.

"Dat was inwedible!" Exclaimed a small foal with a light gold coat and a mane colored amber and gamboge. He had managed to see the whole thing and rushed over as fast as his little legs could carry him, completely in awe at the dragon's abilities. "Do it again! Again!"

"Now Braeburn don't be rude!" Said another mare of a similar coat color trotting up to him "although ah have ta say that ah'm pretty interested in him too, Ah've never seen a dragon after all; what does he eat anyhow?"

"Mostly what we eat, though he does like to have-"

"Say is that a dragon?" another pony interrupted.

Soon enough a plethora of family members had begun forming a crowd around Spike and Bright Mac, each with their own questions about the hatchling with some being so bold as to ask if they could hold him in their own hooves

While Mac was worried about his son becoming overwhelmed by all the ponies, he actually remained surprisingly calm as Bright Mac explained what it was like raising a baby dragon as Spike was gently passed around from family member to family member; only managing to burn one particularly affectionate uncle in the process.

Eventually Pear Butter took notice of the crowd forming around the vats of apple jam and went over to investigate, pushing her way to to the front of the crowd she was elated to see not only Bright Mac holding Spike safe and sound but that none of her family members were looking at Spike with fear or disgust but rather curiosity and intrigue.

It was at that moment that some of the other ponies spotted the bundle of joy carried in Pear Butter's arms.

"Hey Pear Butter, this the other foal ya were talkin about?" asked Red Gala.

"Sure is." replied Pear

Almost instantly, Pear Butter and Applejack were receiving the same treatment as Bright Mac and Spike, Only with much more cuddling.

After a while the crowd had gotten their fill of the two and dispersed to go back to all the other planned activities of the reunion, but of course that didn't stop anypony from including Applejack or Spike in the celebration.

For the rest of the day Applejack and Spike were spoiled rotten: stuffed to the brim with apple treats, showered with toys and gifts, cuddled like stuffed animals, nearly everypony was doting over the adorable foal and hatchling.

But of course the reunion couldn't have lasted forever and as Celestia's sun was setting in the distance, everypony had to say their goodbyes and return to their various homes in Equestria; However many promised to stop by whenever the chance presented itself.

Once again, all was quiet on Sweet Apple Acres; the only source of noise was Bright Mac, Pear Butter, and Granny Smith cleaning up after the celebration while Applejack, Big Mac, and Spike napped in front of the fireplace.

"Well this was one of the best family reunions yet!" said Granny Smith as she folded the family quilt up "Spike and Applejack definitely know how to draw a crowd."

Bright Mac chuckled while running a tablecloth over a washboard "and Buttercup was worried that they wouldn't like Spike, ah told ya it was silly"

"Alright, ya made yer point. Ah'm just happy that everypony took to Spike like a duck to water." said Pear Butter, scrubbing the used dishes in the sink.

"Well of course they did" replied Bright Mac "those two are as cute as a button, no way anypony wouldn't have liked em'"

Having loaded the last box into the barn, Granny walked over to Pear Butter and put a hoof on her shoulder "hey, you two have had a long day, howsabout ah finish up yer chores and you put Spike, Big Mac, and Applejack in bed and git some shuteye?"

"Are ya sure Granny? We don't mind doin our share." said Pear Butter

"Oh hush up, ah'd say you two have earned a bit of down time, ah'll be fine." said Granny Smith, pushing over to get at the messy plates

Seeing that the matriarch of the apples wasn't going to be moved, Bright Mac and pear butter left granny to her own devices.

Spike and applejack had woken up and were starting into the fire with their eyes glazed over, using Big Mac's sleeping form as a pillow. only for all three of them to be roused by Pear Butter's touch as she hoised them up onto her back and carried them upstairs.

"You two sure gave us the runaround today didn't ya?" said Pear Butter "yer both lucky yer so cute."

"Hey c'mon now, don't ya think Apple Rose pinching their cheeks was punishment enough?" said Bright Mac with a laugh

"Buddercup!" exclaimed Spike

Bright Mac's eyes widened "did he just say-"

"Yup, he started saying it last night."

"Wait, ya mean ah missed Spike's first word?!"

"Ya did get to see his first steps while ah didn't, ah'd day that makes us even." replied Pear Butter.

"Fair point." said Bright Mac, before he leaned into each crib and planted a kiss on each infant's head.

Gently shutting the door behind them, Pear Butter began to suggestively trace circles onto Bright Mac's chest "So now that Spike, Big Mac, and Applejack are in bed and Granny is downstairs, what's say you and I have some…'alone' time?"

It took Bright Mac all of about five seconds to realize what his wife was implying, a goofy smile coming across his face as he dragged her into their bedroom; sounds of squeaking springs and giggles soon following after.

All in all, it had been a fun reunion for everypony, and dragon.


End file.
